New TARN Blog: Marko Milenkovic on European Agencies and Third Countries

Decentralised agencies are now indispensable feature of executive governance in the European Union. There is hardly an area of EU engagement without an agency involved in delivering some of the Union’s activities. EU Agencies are constantly stepping up their external engagement and this role is attracting an increasing interest. However, a mostly neglected feature of the agencies by academia is the growing involvement of third countries in EU agencies. Their various engagements enable for a range of third countries to be involved in EU regulatory process in different ways. These engagements are potentially becoming an important cooperation tool for a post-Brexit United Kingdom as well as Western Balkan countries and Turkey amid prolonged enlargement fatigue end uncertain membership prospects. It remains to be seen how much it can be used as one of membership substitute mechanisms within differentiated integration approach.